we made a deal

I applied to graduate school because I have a romantic relationship with industrially desolate places.  They're just the environment to rust the edges of your own humanity and enable you to gather up the muster to do things that are really difficult.  Like attempt to learn from them in an effort to preserve and revitalize despite their failings.

I took the above photo of the gold medal flour mill on the bank of the Mississippi river from the Guthrie theater's citizen overlook in Minneapolis, Minn.   I'm sad to report, that despite everything I loved about this place, in particular the incredible architecture that proliferates throughout the city, the intersection of working-class culture and industry, the city's successful endeavor to preserve its history through the adaptive re-use of industrial space, and their successful reinvigoration of a challenging environment, Minneapolis' gross failure in keeping its city vibrant and alive makes it practically impossible for me to join the University of Minnesota's urban planning program with good conscience.  

With so many of their graduates working with the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, I have a hard time understanding how they can argue that street-level commercial space is unnecessary, that infrastructure investment for wider sidewalks is inappropriate, or that suburban separation of businesses districts is acceptable.  I mean, if the goal is a world class city isn't the first step getting people to actually want to spend time in the city?!  It was enraging.  People don't walk in Minneapolis.  They drive.  Every where.  And more disappointing is that not one neighborhood managed to capture my imagination.  With the exception of the recently revitalized wearhouse district, there was absolutely nothing visually interesting about the urban environment and that was more depressing than the allegedly depressing and desolate industrial surroundings.

After a brief return to Seattle, I spent two days in Portland.  Immediately after stepping into the central business district I witnessed people using public transit and walking.  God forbid!!  

Portland is not as visually interesting as even Seattle, and has much to be desired in the way of architecture, but they have green space, public space, public transit, navigable neighborhoods and a planning department that is obviously focused on putting the public in space.  For these reasons Portland is the kind of city I want to live in, and the place where I want to learn.

Portland State's planning program offers specializations in sustainability, community and economic development, and transportation.  I will spend 50% of my time practically applying the theories of urban planning in the field.  I will work directly with the community in bettering the urban environment. 

Sure, leaving Seattle is a hard decision, but I'm already well suited for things of this nature, I've got that rusty grit of industry under my nails, and I've made changes like this before.  Sometimes parting is for the best, it allows a girl to test her mettle.  I mean, Seattle is the type of city that spoils a person.  I spend so much time here that when I'm away for a little while I truly come to realize how wonderful it is here.  Sure, it has it's faults (transportation among the most significant), but it is also cleaner, brighter, easier to navigate, visually interesting, and more beautiful than most places.  Living in Portland and learning in a city that succeeds where Seattle fails will only enhance the fervor with which I will return.  

At that point I'll re-assess my love affair and romanticism with industrial cities, and maybe Seattle will have finished it's light rail.  

Things I'm good at

Approximately, seven minutes ago I ruined hard boiled eggs.  Before I go on a rant about my deficiencies in egg preparation, I will simply place blame my mother who hates eggs in every form and my sister who is allergic.  For me, eggs are fine, I neither love them nor hate them, but despite this, I'll tell you, when I fuck up a hard boiled egg or the yolk of the fried variety it really burns my ass.  Thanks, Ellen. 

On the upside, I have lots of skills that are wholly unrelated to eggs.  For instance, I am very good at spelling, and painting pottery, and making conversation, and finding interesting things on the Internet.  The latter contributes mostly to my current hobby, and potentially my greatest strength, not studying for the GRE, which is the topic of discussion today.  

Plain and simple, there are a lot of things I love.  Most, I love learning new things.  Tell me about something I've never heard of before and I will gladly sit in as your captive audience for as long as you like to go on about the said subject.  And after I'm done I'll do no end of research on the subject if I end up particularly engaged.  This why I think I'm an excellent candidate for graduate studies.  There is so much I want to have the opportunity to learn about, and the exciting and frustrating part is making the decision of exactly what discipline is the best match for my curiosity. 

The focus of the research I will eventually undertake as a graduate student will revolve around geographic and economic factors affecting populations in post-industrial American cities.   Think the decline and fall of rubber companies in Akron, Ohio and its affect on housing prices, or white flight and suburban dispersal in inner-city Detroit and its affect on the economic base, or consider the economic influence of stagnant community growth within single industry economies.  These are things I'm interested in understanding, and I find this research valuable as SO many American cities succumb to patterns such as these as a result of globalization and industrial decline in the United States.  

So, the question is, what program is the best fit for me?  Should I study Urban Geography and critically study the economic and social impact of economic decline on single industry communities, or should I study urban planning and master a tool kit to build better cities, or should I study public administration and compare and contrast methods for allocation resources to populations in post-industrial cities (person vs. place based tax distribution) to  develop a more efficient and effective economic foundation?  

Obviously, there is a place for me within all of these disciplines.  Right now it seems the only clear decision I've made is that there are three excellent choices with no clear stand-out.  Sure, it would be awesome to think critically and investigate geographies, but it would also be excellent to be a policy genius.  Clearly, I don't know how to go about making the decision; I don't know what to do.  

Except, maybe, pretend I'm really good at boiling eggs.

dearies

today i went to south center.  south center mall should only be visited on week days when there will be approximately 5,000 less people there taking up the oxygen you need to use for my favorite all natural anti-anxiety remedy--breathing.  that place is a cluster fuck.  period.

i'll take toxic holes for $100, alex

you know, it is weird growing up with a toxic pit (basically) in your back yard. less than a mile away from my parent's front door is the berkley pit (as seen above). at more than a mile wide by a mile wide by a mile deep you get an idea of this problem's scale.

so, um, how do i apply to grad school and make it clear that environmental degradation isn't just a theoretical concept, but something that really affects people and communities? i wish i knew a creative way to express why i want to be a professional with the tools to honor the legacy of america's industrial history and the means to begin the process of mitigating the damage industry has caused to cities and towns, making life better for the people living there.

i'm getting constructive about how i'm going to approach this problem. i'm excited to write about this topic. from a personal standpoint, i have my story to offer. i have a lifetime of references to growing up in a community susceptible to the challenges of boom-bust industrial economies, the bi-yearly cancer scares among my peers, the annual lead testing for children exposed to (simply) dirt, etc. and from a political standpoint, i can explain how good policy has helped to revitalize dying communities, pay for environmental clean-up, create new and interesting jobs, and i can best attempt to explain how best practices can enable economic and community development in the future. oh, dear, so much work. such good work, though.